not hardware but look up cycling'74's "m" program. a more interactive, flexible creative and intriguing midi creator/expressor/controller/thingo you will not find. Orignially reated on an 80's mac (updated now though) and they haven't changed the screen interface so you will really experience what a mac classic screen felt like. I remember think that the mac classic II was an incredible machine and couldn't wait to see the further development... still cant wait to see it........

In regards to 'M' there is no new version. Its the exact same program just recompiled to run on modern macs. Even the screen windows have not been resized so you really experience how small mac classic screens were. Its on all the macs in the computer labs at nmit.M

I have something called an Oberheim Cyclone. It is totally mad. Feed in a source MIDI and it will do long division and quadratic equations with it. Or you could just hold down a C chord and it will play the changes. It seems to be rather simple on the surface, but is very deep. Google for this and you will understand.....

I would use it more, but it has a weird MIDI bug that means if you do not filter out controller wheels and other data heavy streams, it crashes. You can send it program changes and it will also respond to the kind of data and density being played.

I have the other 2 in this set as well, that I bought at the same time - a Drummer (it does what it says) and a Strummer. The Strummer is like the Cyclone, but it "strums", that is, hold down a chord and and will flam then with a very satisfying strummed effect. Works especially well on the DX7 and the Roland JV-2080 guitar/harp/gliss sounds.

All these little "Oberheim" boxes are more likely from the evil stores cabinet of Henry Juszkiewicz, the Steve Ballmer of the music biz and destroyer of Oberheim as we knew it. But the original idea was certainly inspired by the Zyklon arp/seq and they are pretty cool little gadgets. I am waiting for someone to reverse engineer one and either turn it into a synth module or a rackmount gadget....